Low Calorie Diet Extends No Age

It seemed everyone wanted to live long and stay healthy. So, anything will be done to keep the body young. One way is to implement a low-calorie diet. However, recent studies refute it.

National Institute on Aging (NIA) in the United States conduct long-term studies on rhesus monkeys on the effects of a low calorie diet for longevity possible. As a result, this diet can indeed prevent some diseases, but it does not prolong life.

The belief that a low calorie diet can extend the life originated in a study in 1934. At that time, mice, yeast, fruit flies and roundworms fed with calorie content 10-40% lower can live 30% longer. In fact, in other studies, these animals lived twice as long. Since then, many believe that calorie restriction can create longevity.

To prove the truth, two separate research teams using rhesus monkeys. NIA research began in 1987, while researching Wisconsin National Primate Research Center (WNPRC) beginning two years later. Rhesus monkeys selected as physiology, genetics, and the median lifespan (27 years) is more closely related to humans than mice used in the study first.

Apparently the end result is different. In 2009, research showed that 80% WNPRC free monkeys eat anything dead from diseases like diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. This figure is higher than the monkeys that restricted calorie intake, is 50%. And they concluded that caloric restriction slows aging in primates.

NIA research just mentioned that monkeys do not consume fewer calories live longer than other monkeys. This also applies to the monkey who started this diet from the age of 1-14 years. NIA scientists say that they are likely to live longer than the monkey that is not limited to food less than one tenth of 1%.

In fact, the health of the monkeys who started calorie restriction since young worse than those who start as adults. In addition, animals that reduce calorie intake from childhood more died of disease unrelated to aging than the animals that eat just about anything.

You could say that the animals are restricted calorie intake more healthy. Cholesterol levels, loss of muscle mass, as well as a lower risk of disease, but that does not mean they'll live longer. From this study we can see that health and longevity are not interconnected.